


Of Promises Made

by Saraste



Series: Nwalin week 2019 [6]
Category: The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, Angst, Character Death, Hurt No Comfort, M/M, Nwalin Week
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-01
Updated: 2019-06-01
Packaged: 2020-04-06 01:37:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 909
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19052629
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Saraste/pseuds/Saraste
Summary: Written before I'd looked at the nwalin week prompts for this year, but this one fit day 6.New beginnings/The end of the world just too well.Beta-read by who else, but the inconceivably patient katajainen, who is an absolute gem. ALl remaining mistakes are my own.





	Of Promises Made

**Author's Note:**

> Written before I'd looked at the nwalin week prompts for this year, but this one fit day 6. ~~New beginnings~~ /The end of the world just too well.  
> Beta-read by who else, but the inconceivably patient katajainen, who is an absolute gem. ALl remaining mistakes are my own.

In the end, Nori couldn’t do it face to face, even when his heart had accepted the truth of those shuffling steps, the empty rotting eyes which would perceive him as nothing but prey if he let them, if he faced the thing that was once the man he loved, but was now the shape of him without the story, body without mind, filled with the simple and malicious need to hunt and maim and devour.

_ ‘Don’t worry,’ Dwalin brushes Nori’s bangs away from his face and kisses him even as the world falls into death and ruin and chaos around them, his hands are warm as he holds Nori, his lips chapped but welcome on Nori’s own before his optimism, ‘we’ll make it.’ _

Nori shook his head, couldn’t afford the distraction even when he was alone with his prey on the alley littered with the debris of a world that was but a memory now, couldn’t… he needed to be clinical about this, there was no room for hesitation, that thing was not Dwalin and could never be Dwalin again, the man he loved was dead. And yet… The animated corpse was standing still before him, as if it was waiting, as if… as if something remained, some whisper of a memory, because his foolish heart almost thought that Dwalin had come looking for him, to have Nori finish him off. Nori stood still, not daring to breathe or shift a muscle, for fear of making the creature turn around, because he knew that if he saw its face, he wouldn’t be able to do it. He felt the weight of the axe in his hands, regretting the deep breath that filled his nostrils with the stench of putrefaction and steeled his heart. He prepared for a swing and went for it before he had time to think about it too much, to think about  _ who _ ... Strike right at the head, sever the nerves of the neck, then vicious arcing blows that cracked bone and pulped decomposing brain matter, making sure that the thing that once was the man he loved would finally be at peace. “We didn’t make it,” he wanted to tell this thing he had taken too long to kill, because his heart was as dead as Dwalin’s now and this was no world for a new love for him. And there would be no replacing Dwalin, couldn't be.

_ Dwalin’s hands are big and warm around his, his eyes troubled, face worn with care and worry. They all have the same haunted look in their eyes now, constant vigilance wearing them down, chipping away the layers of decency and taking and taking and taking until it feels like they are no more human than the reanimated corpses intent on taking all of their lives. ‘Promise me, Nori,’ he says, bringing Nori’s hands to his lips to kiss; he shouldn’t, they’re dirty but Nori doesn’t stop him either, ‘promise me that you’ll end it, if…’ _

Nori looked at the ruin at his feet and wanted to throw up. He  _ had _ promised Dwalin, of course, as Dwalin had promised to him, that they would both do this, if there was no hope. If there was no… Well, there was no hope now, not with the gore splattered across Nori’s front and Dwalin’s old axe dripping with it at Nori’s side.

_ The bite wound is a ragged mess on Dwalin’s forearm and Nori wants to bandage it, to treat it, to forget that it means Dwalin’s doom, that it’s the beginning of the end. ‘You promised,’ Dwalin says, voice flat but his face showing that he knows, that he’s hurting, that he’s cursing himself for not having been quick enough, he proffers his arm, letting the blood drip. The corruption is already showing on his uninjured skin, his face growing pale. Nori shakes his head, if they were with the others he could, he thinks, but not… not when Dwalin is still himself. Instead, he runs, hoping it’s the last he’ll ever see of Dwalin, keeps the memory of that same morning and Dwalin’s morning-breath kisses in his mind to propel him away. Dwalin doesn’t shout after him, for caution, understanding, or some nameless thing, and Nori knows he’s a coward, but he just can’t. _

Nori would very much like to drop down onto the ground, crumple on the blood-splattered pavement and rock himself, pretend that none of this ever happened, that the world did not end, that Dwalin was never bit, that he didn’t just hack his head into bloody pulp.

_ Dwalin’s face is a rotting ruin as he shuffles into view, one hand outstretched to Ori, who has gone very very still, and Dori looks at Nori with compassion and forgiveness, not that he’d ever believed that Nori had ended it, Nori thinks. Nori doesn’t think, then, but springs up and yells and runs at Dwalin, luring him away, leading the thing he has become into a chase into the city, intent on protecting those who are still alive for him to protect. _

Nori couldn’t look away from the gory remains at his feet, drawing in the stench in some form of self-flagellating repentance. Then he saw the carved glass bead catching the sunlight and shining among the bloody mess of had-been-Dwalin’s hair and threw up, swallowing body-wracking sobs and cursing the world that still needed him to live when all he wanted was to die.


End file.
